1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bench top grill assembly. More specifically, the present invention relates to a bench top grill assembly providing improved safety and convenience features in a compact shape.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional grilling, heating and warming apparatus provide substantial detriments and operator safety risks, as noted below.
One type of conventional warming apparatus employs a solid/semi-solid fuel canister in a wire frame under a pan to be heated. This design allows flames and thermal energy issuing from a lit fuel canister to rise under pan and warm the contents. This design is inexpensive to manufacture but is unstable with heavy pans. This design also allows cross winds to affect the fuel canister and redirect the thermal energy in a direction other than toward the pan, risking fire hazards, heating of the wire frame, and damage to surrounding objects.
This wire frame design also makes it difficult to access the hot fuel canister for changing and replacement. As the fuel canister is retained under the pan, the safest access would be to remove the pan causing additional inconvenience and risk of spilling. If the fuel canister is accessed from the side, a special tool is required to grip the hot canister body and lift it from its retaining wire cradle, risking spilling of the now liquid fuel mixture and fire.
Alternative conventional embodiments have expanded on the above common themes by adding multiple fuel canister, replacing the wire frame with differently shaped wire frames, designs incorporating stamped and folded metal, and a multitude of collapsible designs for camping and recreation. Some of these conventional designs provide a grilling rack suspended over the fuel canister to support a pan or other item to be heated.
Unfortunately, each of these conventional designs retains in many of the detriments noted above. Particularly, each of these conventional designs allows multiple side access to the fuel container, usually require direct contact with the fuel container during replacement or transport, fail to limit access to a single side of the design, and do not allow both direct grilling without a grilling rack and an easily replaceable grill rack.
Conventional designs also fail to provide for user convenience in many ways. Since grilling operations often involve the use of forks or skewers it would be convenient for conventional designs to provide easy storage for these utensils. Additionally, since conventional grilling operations often include condiments such as vegetables, meats, fruits, marshmallows, etc, it would be convenient for conventional designs to provide easy storage for these condiments. Unfortunately, none of the conventional grill designs incorporate the ability to securely store utensils and condiments while addressing each of the detriments noted above.
In summary, the problems of commercially available grill assemblies, include:                1. Instability in set-up, operation, and transport for both a grill mechanism and the solid/semi-solid (or liquid in use) fuel elements.        2. Safety hazards through easy access to heating elements, air currents affecting heating elements, inappropriate structural heating, difficulty in removing or replacing heating elements, and inability to direct the flame issuing from the heating element during use.        3. Inconvenience in transportability, operation on a working surface, storage for utensils and condiments in a safe, secure and transportable manner, and access to the heating element for removal or replacement without additional tools such as pliers.        